Cadillac's chief global marketing officer Uwe Ellinghaus stopped by yesterday to hang out with the Jalopnik commentariat and talk about how the luxury brand wants to take the fight to its German rivals. Before he split, I had one question for him.

It was about the new Audi A3, and the Mercedes-Benz CLA. Both those brands now have small, entry-level, front- and all-wheel drive sedans priced just below $30,000. And guess what? They're sellingwell, both of them. Buyers can't get enough of them.

So I asked Ellinghaus if Cadillac might follow suit. Could they launch a smaller, entry-level sedan that could slot in below even the ATS?

"I could envisage a sub-ATS car," he told me. But here's what he would do: keep it rear-wheel drive.

"Hopefully it would not be front-wheel drive," he said. "From the branding point-of-view, I would want consistency throughout the lineup... I would love to be the only car in that segment that happens to be rear-wheel drive."